A Brief Overview of Dehorner

This entry was posted on February 8, 2018 by Fairfield Supplies.

There are several measures that you need to take when it is about raising a cattle farm. Apart from making a good boundary wall, the next thing you need doing is dehorning the cattle making use of a dehorner.

What is Dehorning?

As the name describes, Dehorning is a removal of animal horns. It is a vital part of the overall cattle management system. If the cattle you are raising on your farm has horns, then immediately you need to think of dehorning. The reason behind this is the horns can become deadly for the other livestock as well as for the farmer.

If you have limited space, then it becomes harder to raise them and which is why it is always recommended dehorning before they grow into a matured one.

What happens when your cattle on the farm have horns?

It can result in causing injury to cattle especially while transportation and in yards

Even when you don’t pay much attention, horned cattle can damage the infrastructure

It can also cause significant damage to carcass quality

They will require enough space while transportation

Once they learn to protect themselves, they can be dangerous for the owners

They can be aggressive to the other animals causing damage

Methods of Dehorning:

Before buying a dehorner, you need to be very sure whether the method that you are opting goes with the size of the horn and also with animal age. The primary step of dehorning is removing the complete ring from the base. Don’t try unless you have experience as operator skill is highly recommended to take into consideration.

Let us check the different methods:

Dehorning Knife:

Yes, as it says, the dehorning knife comes with a curved blade that can be used easily. It is a quick process and has proffered great results with no regrowth only when done properly. It is recommended to remove cm of the hair present around horn bud and for this, the knife needs to be extremely very sharp.

It is suggested to dehorn calves of two weeks to six months with this method.

Dehorning Iron:

When you make use of the dehorning iron, it will not open or raw wound. These dehorning irons have a structure like the number “O”. It can be made in different sizes but have a diameter of 50mm. It is placed over horn bud and surrounding tissues which are then twisted for a few times.

This technique makes sure that blood supply is sealed and the bud area dies and drops. This technique is not used on most of the livestock as it is effective only on some horn buds depending on the sizes. Generally, it is applied on the intermediate-aged calves.

Scoop Dehorners:

This is another technique where the scoop dehorners are being used by vertically passing them down and pushing handles outward ultimately scooping the horn out. This is available in various sizes and therefore is a crucial task to choose the size of the instrument properly for the animal for optimum result.

Dehorning is a mandatory task to maintain a safe environment. Now you can get many dehorner for sale in the market that can help you to get the best results. As it is always recommended, do choose the right instrument as per the size of the horns.